The Niland Collection

Portrait of Jennie Mitchell

Artist

Title

Portrait of Jennie Mitchell

Date

1892

Dimensions

15.5 × 21cm

Medium

Pencil

Collection

Niland Collection

Provenance

Gift of Mrs. V. Franklin in 1959

Description

Jennie Mitchell was the younger sister of Susan Mitchell, the poet and writer whose portrait John B. Yeats later painted. Jennie got to know the Yeats family several years before her sister when she traveled with Lily Yeats on a boat from Ireland to England in 1890. She spent the next two years in Germany and Austria and on her way back to Ireland she visited the Yeats family in London. This drawing of her was made at this time. She was twenty-four years old. Yeats, who sketched his many guests, presents Jennie as a confident young woman. Her face with an open and frank expression is turned towards the artist in a natural and relaxed pose. Jennie had been brought up in Sligo and this common interest may have helped her to become a good friend of the Yeats sisters. In later life she published a number of stories and was a companion to her sister Susan. This drawing was presented to Sligo by their sister, Victoria Franklin in 1959.